Celebrating Community
“Lost World: UN Report Shows Nature on Death’s Door” was released at the May 2019 Biodiversity Summit in Paris. This 1800-page document carried the lede “Human activity is trashing the planet, pushing hundreds of thousands of species to the brink.” I’m an environmentalist and received coastal stewardship training and certification with Rutgers University. This led to my volunteer work with […]
By George Fiala A few months ago I wrote a front page editorial about how Red Hook could be made better. I said that we really need a localized governing mechanism that doesn’t now exist. The reason I mentioned was that there are many illattended community meetings. I thought that probably with so many meetings, it’s hard for the average […]
Back in June 2010, when I started this paper, I didn’t have any experience with politicians. I didn’t even think I’d ever report on politics. I kind of thought local politics was boring. However, after Carlos Menchaca became our unexpected councilman, I realized that it was my responsibility as a publisher to take it all seriously. So I began paying […]
When our local government works well for us, we are the first to give credit. A couple of years ago we were aghast at two looming possibilities—an out of place nursing home and a misplaced ferry stop. Despite the worst efforts of the local community board, our councilman saved us in both cases—the ferry stop ended up in the right […]
There are more than 3400 local governments in New York State. The state population is about 20 million, which means one body of government for every 6,000 residents. Red Hook has twice as many people, but not much in the way of local government. Our councilman has Sunset Park to worry about, which is much larger than we are. Our […]
Red light district John McGettrick, co-president of the Red Hook Civic Association and longtime Red Hook leader, has been at the forefront of local traffic safety way before Vision Zero. When Fairway first opened, he led the fight for a stoplight on Van Brunt and Sullivan Street. That was achieved. Because of the imminent arrival of the new Red Hook […]
There has never been more uncertainty about the future of our federal government in my lifetime, than right now. In 1980 Ronald Reagan gave an inaugural address that included the phrase, “government is not the solution, it is the problem.” That same speech also included a very powerful, upbeat message, as follows: “I believe we, the Americans of today, are […]
Faithful readers of this newspaper will notice that we have not mentioned Chris Ward’s AECOM proposal for the development of Southwest Brooklyn. This has been a purposeful omission. We did not want to publicize what we consider a pie-in-the sky, self-serving proposal that is not in the interest of any current residents of the existing Red Hook community. One example […]
Based on President Obama’s approval rating (in the mid 50’s), the shrinking unemployment rate (now 4.6%), other positive factors, and the vulgar and unqualified bigot the Republicans had nominated, I figured election night would be one of celebration for progressives such as myself. Clearly, despite Hillary Clinton receiving 2.5 million more votes than Donald Trump, I was wrong. We now […]
The late great historian, Howard Zinn used to say, “you can’t be neutral on a moving train.” What he meant was that we are part of a world that is moving whether we like it or not and therefore have choices to affect its direction. Soon, you’ll have an opportunity to vote for our next president. If you are one […]